Here’s another craft standard that we’re using for Valentine’s Day. After seeing these polymer clay hearts that I linked to yesterday, I found this project. So we decided to make these little salt dough hearts for my five-year-old’s class.
Though I think it would have been adorable to make them shaped like candies and it would have made a useful gift to add a magnet, I questioned the wisdom of giving small children something shaped like candy, particularly with a magnet attached. Then my husband proved how delicious these hearts look when he actually attempted to eat one, thinking they were cookies. (Take note, April Fool’s Day pranksters). See, don’t they look delicious?
We used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and this standard salt dough recipe: 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup warm water, 1 cup flour. My five-year-old enjoyed rolling out the dough and cutting the hearts. Then we poked large holes for the string, baked them at 250 for around two hours (until hard all the way through), painted with acrylic paints and dusted them with glitter while the paint was still wet. Easy!
In my efforts to develop my crafty side I’ve become a huge blog fan. Your site has been very enjoyable to follow and this is just the kind of project I needed for valentines day. I can’t wait to finish cutting out my dress pattern and get started on these. What a fun gift it will be to hand out to my friends, and one that they won’t have to put away after Vday. Thanks and keep up the great work!
I put a little link to your Valentine’s day card on my blog; this one’s really cute too!
Those are adorable! I am so tempted to try them… you really make it sound so simple. (If you could only see my last failed attempt at making salt dough creations… hmmm.)
you have this lovely way of taking a common craft and dressing it up to be oh so darling! thanks for sharing! 😉
what a lovely idea! And we are living in a better climate for salt dough now – last time I made it in the tropics, the cockroaches ate them.
we did this last year and made a little wall decor!
http://myzoebug.blogspot.com/2009/01/xoxo.html
i was thinking of doing the polymer clay ones, but i like the cost of these ones better…sweet.
these are great! thanks for the recipe!
glitter with children, you are a brave woman. love the heart!
These are so cute!
P.S. At first I thought the heart was melted down red crayons. That would be really fun too!
So fun! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are darling! What a fun project. I’ll be linking.
Oh, quit being so awesome!
Cute, inexpensive and easy! I’m trying to avoid adding to the volume of candy that comes home from preschool celebrations, so this heart craft is perfect!
I love this idea. The heart ornament is so cute. I’m going to try it with my kids today. (I promised them a fun Valentine’s project and here I am scrambling for one, but I knew you wouldn’t let me down.) Perfect! 🙂
~ Jennifer
These are so cute! k
My daughters & I enjoyed making these hearts today, and I linked your post tonight: http://funasyoumakeit.blogspot.com/2010/02/hallelujah-i-made-it.html. Thanks for the inspiration!
Just found your blog and it is so great! And I really love these little hearts! My 8 year old and I were talking about making things with salt dough last weekend but we never got around to it…I think we will do these this afternoon, just in time for tomorrow’s parties! Thanks for sharing!
I just had to come here and write this. I started making these today with my kids. They loved it! While they were on the counter cooling my husband waltzed through the kitchen, snagged one and tried to eat it! Then asked me what kind of cookies they were and progressed to basically tell me they sucked since they were so hard!! lol Men!
we just made these heats today and are going to make necklaces out of them! thanks for the idea!
LOVE THIS! very inspiring. tried it myself and posted on my blog!
You should definitely repost these for all to see this year. These are now a traditional valentine for our girls’ valentine parties. Last year we made pink and teal ones covered in glitter and then strung them onto teal and green thin ribbon as necklaces for all of the kids in the class. They were a HIT! The kids all seemed to think they were candy for a bit, until they tasted them… 🙂 Thanks for the idea! We’re getting ready to do this again!!
Hi all! Just made these gorgeous little hearts for my christmas tree this year, they are the most adorable little hearts in the world! Thankyou for a great recipe, and hope everyone elses turn out just as beautiful! Love to all 🙂 x Carly
The twine just adds that special touch. These are great. Thank you for the inspiration.
I have never used salt dough beyond Christmas ornaments – these are charming! Have only recently discovered your blog and LOVE LOVE LOVE it! 🙂
You can also cook these in the microwave. We did when this was a party craft and we were in a hurry for them to dry and cool.
Just came across these on pinterest. Absolutely amazing and what a great easy craft dough to use for so many things. Thanks for sharing!!
LOVE these little Valentine’s hearts you have made.. they are gorgeous! I hope it’s okay, I have just finished a Valentine’s crafts round-up and featured your cute little salt dough hearts. You can see it here:
http://jamiebrock.hubpages.com/hub/10-Easy-and-Inexpensive-Valentines-Day-Craft-Ideas
Thank you so much for sharing this!